Water extraction of technetium-99m from neutron irradiated porous molybdenum dioxide pellet.

We have been developing a novel 99Mo/99mTc generator production method using a water-insoluble porous MoO2 target. In this method, the extraction of 99mTc from MoO2 is achieved by leveraging the difference in their water solubilities. The fabrication of a porous MoO2 pellet, and the water extraction of 99mTc from neutron irradiated porous MoO2 were conducted. The results confirmed 99mTc extraction with a low Mo/Tc ratio. Additionally, the dissolution rate of radioactive 99Mo was found to be higher than stable isotopes of molybdenum, i.e., confirming the hot atom effect on the dissolution of molybdenum in (n, γ ) reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]